Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat exchanger unit.
Description of the Related Art
A vehicle, for example, an automobile is provided with an air-conditioning device (hereinafter, referred to as an air conditioner) which adjusts the temperature in a vehicle.
Such an air conditioner includes a looped refrigerant flow path which circulates a refrigerant. A compressor, condenser, decompression mechanism (expansion valve or decompression valve), and heat exchanger are sequentially arranged in the refrigerant flow path to constitute a refrigerant cycle.
Of these, the heat exchanger is disposed inside an air conditioning unit provided in a vehicle (refer to Patent Document 1, JP 2009-85569A, for example).
The heat exchanger of Patent Document 1 includes a main body in which a first heat exchanger and a second heat exchanger are arranged side by side. The first heat exchanger includes on one side thereof a refrigerant entrance and on the other side thereof a refrigerant exit. The heat exchanger of Patent Document 1 is configured to supply the refrigerant from the refrigerant exit provided in the other side of the first heat exchanger and the refrigerant flowing in a bypass flow path to a refrigerant entrance provided in one side of the second heat exchanger.
However, the heat exchanger of Patent Document 1 has a problem in that the path of the refrigerant becomes complex because the refrigerant exit of the first heat exchanger and the refrigerant entrance of the second heat exchanger are located on sides opposite to each other in the main body.
On the other hand, there is a heat exchanger in which a refrigerant exit of a first heat exchanger and a refrigerant entrance of a second heat exchanger are disposed on the same side in a main body (refer to Patent Document 2, JP 2000-105093A, for example).
In the heat exchanger of Patent Document 2, a communicating path that provides communication between the refrigerant exit of the first heat exchanger and the refrigerant entrance of the second heat exchanger is provided in the outer surface of a side plate disposed outside the main body.
However, in the heat exchanger described in Patent Document 2, the communicating path that provides communication between the refrigerant exit of the first heat exchanger and the refrigerant entrance of the second heat exchanger is provided in the outer surface of the side plate disposed in the outermost side of the main body. For this reason, cold air from the refrigerant flowing in the communicating path flows to the outside, resulting in heat loss.
More specifically, the refrigerant flowing in the communicating path is wasted because it is used for cooling the main body (casing) of the air-conditioning unit, a seal member attached in the circumference of the heat exchanger, or the like without cooling air-conditioning air passing through the heat exchanger.